Man of Steel adds a longtime comic book character, plus new set photos reveal Kevin Costner as Pa Kent. Riddick 3 finds its villain. Oz the Great and Powerful is really paying homage to the original Wizard of Oz movie!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from The Hunger Games.

Man of Steel

West Wing actor Richard Schiff, who is also currently appearing on Once Upon a Time as King Leopold, has reportedly been cast as Dr. Hamilton. That character is almost certainly based on the comics character Professor Emil Hamilton, the head of S.T.A.R. Labs and a longtime scientific adviser Superman who eventually turned into a supervillain on two separate occasions. Most likely, Schiff's character will just be filling the "good-natured if absent-minded scientific adviser" role in this movie, but I guess you never know. [Variety]

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Here are some new set photos from the recent filming in North Vancouver featuring Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent. [Comic Book Movie]

This is almost certainly false, but a random tipster on the movie's Facebook page claims crews are already scouting locations for the movie's sequel, specifically in the towns of Yorkville, Illinois and Plano, Illinois - both of which are being used as Smallville in the first film. The timing of this sounds completely off, so I'd take that with a huge grain of salt. [Comic Book Movie]

The Avengers

If you're looking for spoilers, you're barking up the wrong tree with Paul Bettany. He voices Tony Stark's computerized butler J.A.R.V.I.S. in this and the Iron Man movies, but that's almost the complete extent of his knowledge on the subject (and even then he's not 100% sure):

I have no input with that other than spending half an hour sitting in a studio doing the voice-over. It's the best job I've ever had. I say the lines and they pay me money. I forgot I was in Iron Man. Someone said: ‘I loved you in Iron Man'. I said: ‘You've got me mixed up with someone else.' I forgot I did the voice because it was only 30min in a recording studio laughing my arse off. I've got no idea what's happening with The Avengers. They work out what bits need explaining with a voice-over and then give it to me.

Thor 2

Saving Private Ryan writer Robert Rodat is reportedly working on a rewrite of Don Payne's sequel script. [Deadline]

X-Men: First Class

While Simon Kinberg is currently working on a script for a sequel, the return of director Matthew Vaughn would likely also mean his frequent collaborator Jane Goldman would do a rewrite on the script. When asked about her involvement in the sequel, Goldman responded:

"James [McAvoy] and Michael [Fassbender] brought so much to [Charles Xavier and Magneto] that I think it's entirely natural to be talking about where those characters would go next. In terms of what's going on with that, again from my point of view, it's down to what Matthew [Vaughn] decides to do. If he decides he wants to direct the next one and if he wants me on board, I'm 100 percent there."

Star Trek 2

Alice Eve confirmed she has been cast in the movie, although she wouldn't say anything about her role beyond simply acknowledging director J.J. Abrams' tendency to include strong female characters in his work. [MTV]

The Hunger Games

Here's a new promo image of Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson as District 12 combatants Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, this time outfitted in their training uniforms. [EW]

Riddick 3

Colombiana and Knight and Day bad guy Jordi Molla is reportedly joining Vin Diesel and the just cast Katee Sackhoff in this movie. He will, shockingly enough, play the bad guy. Specifically, he's Santana, "a mercenary who heads up an eight-man crew tasked with finding and killing Riddick." [Variety]

Chronicle

Here's a French poster for the found footage superhero movie. [Coming Soon]

Oz the Great and Powerful

Young actress Joey King reveals Sam Raimi's Wizard of Oz prequel will borrow a very familiar trick from the 1938 movie:

"We're doing the same thing as the first Wizard of Oz, we're making it black and white in the beginning and then (it gets) colorful when we enter the Land of Oz."

She also explains her dual roles in the movie:

"I play Wheelchair Girl and China Girl. Wheelchair Girl is in Kansas and China Girl is my main character, she's in most of the movie. She's really fun – she's sassy. She lost her family when the Wicked Witches came in. Now, Oz sort of becomes her adopted father."

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

Paramount has moved this movie about Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as grown-up bounty hunter versions of the fairy tale characters from March 2, 2012 all the way to January 11, 2013. There's no reason given, so I'll just assume that Paramount suddenly realized this movie isn't just an elaborate practical joke and is too embarrassed to release it right away. [Coming Soon]

Nemesis

A-Team director Joe Carnahan weighed in on his plans to adapt Mark Millar's comic about a superhero who is basically Batman, only evil, and says he has the perfect person in mind for the role of Nemesis's law enforcement adversary,:

"Mark Millar and I were talking about Nemesis and I had mentioned that I think a particularly fantastic Blake Morrow would be Liam Neeson."

Beyond Neeson's experience playing an evil counterpart to the Dark Knight in Batman Begins, he is also the wolf-punching star of Carnahan's upcoming wolf-punching movie The Grey, which heavily features Liam Neeson punching wolves. Basically, I'm saying that this is exactly the sort of creative team that should be tackling the adaptation of a latter-day Mark Millar comic. [Collider]

Fringe

Here are three sneak peeks from the midseason premiere and eighth episode overall, "Back to Where You've Never Been," which airs this Friday. [Fringe Television]

And here are some behind-the-scenes photos for the episode. [SpoilerTV]

Here's the synopsis for episode ten, "Forced Perspective," which airs January 27:

A MYSTERIOUS GIRL CAN SEE THE FUTURE - Olivia continues to cope with the ominous warning from the Observers, while Peter and the team track a girl with the mysterious ability to predict death.

Responding to Fox president Kevin Reilly's recent statements at the TCA event that Fringe may be too expensive and too lowly rated to bring back for a fifth season, Fringe creator J.J. Abrams says he is still cautiously optimistic a fifth season can happen:

"I would like to have one more season to wrap things up. But then that's what any producer would say. I'm hopeful. There's some stuff coming up this season that's so great. Maybe it's dumb optimism that the good work [of the Fringe showrunners Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman] will be rewarded. And if not on Fox, maybe somewhere else."

For what it's worth, Reilly did stress that a lot of his decision will come down to the deal the network can strike with the show's production studio, Warner Bros. And Warner executive Peter Ross says they are very much behind the show:

"We have no plans to give viewers closure this season because we expect the series to continue."

There's a bit more at the link, for those interested in dissecting the exact statements of various TV executives. [Fringe Television]

Game of Thrones

According to his CV, actor Paul Kealyn will make his television debut in the second season in the small role of Weasel, one of the gaolers at Harrenhal. [Winter is Coming]

Chuck

Here's a promo for the tenth episode, "Chuck vs. Bo", which guest stars Bo Derek as herself for some reason. [ChuckTV]

Farscape star Ben Browder will appear in episode eleven, "Chuck vs. the Bullet Train", an episode Browder himself said contains "lots of guns and bullets." [ChuckTV]

The River

Series creator Oren Peli, best known for directing Paranormal Activity, promises the first season of his found footage sci-fi horror series will tell a complete story, regardless of whether the show gets picked back up again or not:

What we've shot so far, the first eight episodes are actually really cool. Every week have a very exciting scare of the week, but we also advance the story of the search for Emmet Cole, the missing nature host. During some sort of the conclusion at the end of the first season, I'm not saying what it is, I'm not saying if it's good or bad, but there's going to be some sort of resolution. If we're lucky enough to have future seasons we do have some sort of a roadmap where we know where to go, but for now we've just been concentrating on the first season and wanting to make it a complete season on its own. But we do know where to go if we're going to go further ahead beyond that.

Peli also discusses the role of Bruce Greenwood, who played Christopher Pike in Star Trek and plays the missing Dr. Emmet Cole on The River:

Well, basically even though he doesn't have a lot of screen time in the early episodes he's sort of like the driving force of the show. That's why everyone is there. None of them would be there if it wasn't for Bruce. The great thing about the format of the show is that they've been on the Undiscovered Country, that's our show within the show, for – I don't know – fifteen or twenty years. So, whenever we went to do any kind of flashbacks there's the show and Lincoln's life and Lena have been filmed ever since they were kids. So, now it's gotten to all the footage and there's flashbacks. So, even though he's not physically there his presence is there and you can always use footage, get it from [that] or more recent footage, footage that we've just discovered from right around the time that he disappeared. So, there's definitely going to be some Bruce in the show and just about the right amount to keep you intrigued. Like I said, there's going to be some resolution towards the end and so there's going to be more Bruce towards the end of the season.

Elsewhere, producer Michael Green promises the show won't go overboard with the serialized storytelling, and also points out the horror won't be entirely of the supernatural variety:

"We know all the pitfalls [of a serialized show] and do not want to fall into them. Each episode is a stand-alone horror film. We looked more to X-Files than to shows like Lost. We're going make each one of them a little jewel... It's the Amazon, there's more than ghosts to be scared of. There's an endless number of things that can hurt you."

Also, both Peli and Green say that character death is a very real possibility, but it will be handled carefully, not cheaply. [SpoilerTV]

Supernatural

Here's a promo for this Friday's time travel episode, "Time After Time After Time."

Executive producer Sera Gamble explains what's ahead for the Winchester brothers in their fight against the Leviathan:

Right now, the problem is they have so little information about how to make a direct assault of any kind. Dick Roman is a monster they don't know how to kill. Also, he's wearing the body of a very, very powerful human. In upcoming episodes, we'll see Dean really obsessively checking in with Frank and working with Frank on this. Sam is every bit as interested in pursuing this, but also kind of worried about Dean's psychological state because this has become such a personal, unhealthy revenge situation for him in the wake of Bobby's death.

She also discusses the mystery of whether Bobby is still around as a spirit, and she confirms Jim Beaver will be back on the show eventually in some capacity:

In Episode 11 and in episodes to come, we wove in oblique references to that. What we want to do is keep the audience in the same grief space as Sam and Dean, who miss Bobby and start to question whether what they're seeing is evidence that he might be a spirit or whether they're just going through that normal grieving process where you think you see your loved one everywhere. Anyone who has gone through that knows that happens sometimes. And even when you are the world's foremost supernatural investigators, that could happen to you...We're not going to leave you totally dangling forever. We would never let an actor as good as Jim Beaver go forever and ever. We fully intend to see him again in some way. I can't give away everything, but I can say at the very least, we could do something like flashbacks to earlier in their lives, or bring him in in some other way.

Misfits

We learned a while back that Chuck co-creator Josh Schwartz was working with original series creator Howard Overman on an Americanized version of the show, and their spec script has now reportedly been submitted to all five networks. [Deadline]